Data-Driven Daoist

“Stop it! We can’t let it use the sound attack,” Yu Han shouted.

Faster than his sentence could end, Huang Niuniu whipped the ghoul boss on the head. Her other whip, swung with her left hand, struck the expanding belly.

“Nice work—”

Yu Han celebrated too fast. The ghoul boss staggered a few steps but kept breathing in.

He rushed forward without caring about defence. If that sound attack hit, the nausea alone would leave him stunned.

Swift Hoof Lunge!

The ghoul boss dodged backward. Its eyes gleamed with mirth.

“Fuck!”

A dark form flew past him, landing in the ghoul boss’s open mouth.

It was a severed Filth Eating Ghoul head! The monstrous face of the smaller beast stared back at Yu Han from inside the ghoul boss’s mouth. The ghoul boss fell on its butt.“Don’t just stand there! Kill it!” Li Yao shouted.

Yu Han didn’t need to be told twice. He struck with the halberd at the same time the ghoul boss spat the head out.

Ox Horn Pierce!

Rage-filled red eyes glared back. The blade thrust into its chest, and it opened its mouth to let out a sound.

“Shit!” No way to dodge. What should I do?! Think! Something clicked inside his brain. The world went quiet.

The next second, a massive buzz hit him. He didn’t hear the boom he was expecting, but his head felt like someone had smashed it with a metal pipe.

Lifeforce -277

***

“Water! Quickly, bring some water!” Huang Niuniu said. She sounded panicked.

A wet sensation hit his face. It was cold, and Yu Han was awake instantly.

He tried opening his eyes. Light flooded through, as if hitting his brain directly. He snapped his eyes shut again.

Is it day already?

That was when the headache hit him. He cried out.

“He’s awake!” Li Yao said. They splashed more water on him. Someone massaged the soles of his feet and his palms in strange circular motions.

Huang Niuniu was crying. Fang Zhao tried to calm her, and Li Yao was saying something too. Each sound hit his brain like a hammer. But with each passing second, the headache faded. The sounds stopped hurting. His body gradually relaxed.

“Maybe he needs air?” Huang Niuniu said.

“On it!” Li Yao shouted.

“Don’t you fucking dare—” Yu Han shouted, then held his chest as a frenzy of coughs exploded out. After what felt like an eternity of coughing his guts out, he could breathe normally again.

He slowly opened his eyes. It wasn’t daytime. The night was dark, and there was a small lantern by his head.

Huang Niuniu massaged his palm, still crying. Li Yao slapped his cheeks twice, then held up six fingers.

“How many fingers?”

“Seven.”

“Close your eyes, tubs. Rest a bit.”

Yu Han complied.

A few minutes later, he counted the fingers correctly. Fang Zhao supported him from behind, helping him sit up.

“The ghoul boss?”

“You mean the big one?” Li Yao moved away, showing a headless ghoul collapsed on the ground. “Fang Zhao was right behind you. After you passed out, you let the halberd go. It didn’t pierce all the way through, so he punched the spear handle and pushed it inside. I finished it off with a masterful slash, if I do say so myself.”

“You pushed through the sound attack?” Yu Han asked the red-eyed boy, ignoring Li Yao’s posing.

Fang Zhao was topless, and his chest was wrapped with blood-dampened bandages. His right arm was secured by a bandage sling, made from broad strips of cloth from his shirt. It was tied around his neck.

“I’m fine. I think Brother Yu blocked most of the damage,” Fang Zhao said.

“Are you calling me fat?” Yu Han said.

“What? No, that’s not what I—”

Yu Han laughed weakly. “It’s a joke. And the hell do you mean you’re fine? You’re the most injured out of all of us.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You almost died,” Huang Niuniu said, wiping her tears. She was still sobbing. The blood around her eyes and nose had dried into flakes.

“But I didn’t. It was a calculated risk!”

“What if no one was there?” she shouted. “If you’d passed out and—”

“You, Li Yao, and Fang Zhao were there. I wouldn’t go in if I was alone. I’d just run,” Yu Han said.

Huang Niuniu fell silent. She kept massaging his feet, brooding away.

Yu Han brought his profile up.

Lifeforce: 351 (-369) / 768

“Heh, nice.” Yu Han giggled.

“What’s so funny?”

“I lost 369 Lifeforce. Get it?” Yu Han asked.

“You what?” Huang Niuniu cried.

“How much did you guys lose?” he asked.

“83,” Li Yao said.

“I’m still Level 0 thanks to this ring.” Fang Zhao shrugged. There was anger in his voice, but now it was subdued.

“Niu’er?”

She looked away.

“Huang Niuniu.”

“544,” she said as quietly as a mosquito.

“How dare you get mad at me, heretical woman?” Yu Han shouted.

“It’s not from the fight,” Huang Niuniu said defensively. “It’s from when I overused Bioluminescence.”

“How the hell is that not part of the fight? You can’t just self-destruct like that.” Yu Han shook his head. “How’d you even do it? That huge light nova?”

“I don’t know. It was dark, and there were monsters. So I panicked, and… I don’t know. Too many questions!” she snapped. “We have to go back to the Night Alchemist’s Yard. Or Fang Zhao’s going to be in trouble.”

“Me?” Fang Zhao said. “I don’t think my arm is broken. The gash was just large. Same for my chest. It might take a while to heal, but—”

“These monsters lived in cesspools. You have poop in your bloodstream now,” Yu Han interrupted.

Fang Zhao paled. His teeth chattered.

“There’s a cure for it back at the yard,” Yu Han said.

While they had been talking, Li Yao had finished harvesting the cores. “There’s 38 of the small ones,” he said as he dumped them on the cart.

“Still bigger than normal Flesh Eating Ghouls,” Yu Han said.

“And one big motherfucker.” Li Yao threw the ghoul boss’s head onto the cart. He handed Yu Han a core.

It was the size of a fingernail, a few times bigger than normal cores.

“I don’t know how much the corpses and the cores are worth,” Yu Han said. “I’ll ask Senior Wen. We’ll split it four ways.”

“That’s not needed,” Fang Zhao insisted. “You’ve helped me so much. I can’t take money from you—”

“This and that are separate matters,” Yu Han said.

“But I—”

“Take the money if you know what’s good for you. You think I want to give it to you?” Yu Han grumbled. “But work is work.”

“I gained Pure Qi, though,” Fang Zhao said.

“Which you’ll lose.”

Fang Zhao didn’t argue.

“Is this normal?” Li Yao asked. “Tubs, I don’t think just the two of you are strong enough to handle these kinds of battles by yourselves.”

“You calling me weak?” Yu Han raised an eyebrow.

“Yup.” Li Yao grinned.

“It’s not normal,” Yu Han said. “I’m closing the hatch. We’re not in any shape to shovel now.” He wanted to rush back and dip in the hot spring. The throbbing sensation in his head wasn’t totally gone. He’d take some medicine for infection too, just in case; the yard had plenty.

“Wait, don’t close it yet.” Huang Niuniu stood. She put her helmet back on and took out the glowing rocks.

“I never knew you had such a good work ethic,” Yu Han said.

“That’s not it. As Li Yao guessed, this isn’t normal. There shouldn’t be monsters this powerful in this tank. It was cleaned a week ago by a Senior.”

“You mean…?”

“Something’s down there causing such rapid growth. Remember what we found in the other tank?” Huang Niuniu said.

They’d found an ingredient for the fasting brew. It was a treasured herb. So maybe there was something similar in this case?

“Let’s check it out.”

Yu Han glanced at Fang Zhao. How could I forget! We got a luck magnet here, if my protagonist hypothesis is true. His eyes fell on the ghoul boss’s carcass on the cart. The donkey was eating some grass from the roadside. Both bad luck and good luck.

Unfortunate enough to encounter a foe many times their Level, but fortunate enough to survive, and even come out stronger. Whether via breakthroughs in powers or finding treasure and loot.

They walked to the hatch.

“Fang Zhao, you should stay here. There’s dirty stuff down there, which is bad for your wound,” Huang Niuniu said.

“Let him come. If there is something, it wouldn’t be fair if he doesn’t see it,” Yu Han said.

“I’d like to join you,” Fang Zhao agreed.

Without you, we might miss it.

Huang Niuniu lit up the glowing rock. She led the way down. “Be careful of the stairs. They’re slippery.”

“I think I stepped on poop,” Li Yao said. Both he and Fang Zhao had scarves on.

Name: Yu Han (Johan)

Level: 1

True Qi: 79 (+1) / 200

Pure Qi: 39 (+28) / 200

Primordial Qi: 0

Lifeforce: 351 / 768

“That’s a lot of True Qi.” Yu Han whistled. It echoed in the dark tank.

Huang Niuniu and Li Yao had also earned a lot, apparently. Especially Huang Niuniu with her Bioluminescence.

Arts:

[Deep Sleep]

Type: Bloodline

Grade: Mortal Level 1

Mastery: Initial Step Level 1

True Qi: 189 / 200

[Echoing Dreamscape]

Type: Auxiliary

Grade: Mortal Level 9

Mastery: Initial Step Level 3

True Qi: 179 / 400

[Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique]

Type: Cultivation

Grade: Mortal Level 5

Mastery: Initial Step Level 1

True Qi: 198 (+10) / 200

[Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms]

Type: Martial

Grade: Elite Level 2

Mastery: Initial Step Level 1

True Qi: 188 (+61) / 200

[Thousand Petals Awareness]

Type: Psychic

Grade: Elite Level 9

Mastery: Initial Step Level 1

True Qi: 80 (+43) / 200

So close. Both Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique and Ox Tail 72 Sweeping Forms were close to levelling up. Even Thousand Petals Awareness had gained True Qi. He must’ve been subconsciously using it. He wasn’t proficient enough to intentionally use it.

That’s right! The sound attack had no sound, but it still damaged me.

The only explanation was that there was sound, but he had used Thousand Petals Awareness to block it off somehow. The Psychic Art was meant to enhance senses, but the manual had mentioned how, if practised improperly, it could be used to mute senses.

Yu Han had been practising it. Until now, he could only slightly enhance or mute his sense of smell (because of their work) and taste (because of Huang Niuniu’s brews).

Never before had sight, sound, and touch worked. But this time, they did. Although it didn’t block the effects of the attack, only the sound.

Perhaps it had been only for that split second? Or perhaps muting the sound cost him less Lifeforce? It was hard to know.

“There’s light,” Fang Zhao said.

A few stairs down, Yu Han saw a faint, pulsing glow coming from the arch-stone doorway to the cesspool. The group crept nervously to the end of the stairs.

Li Yao yelped. “What the hell is that?”